A miko's shark
by Torticolis
Summary: Inu/Naru xover. Kagome and Shippou are unwittingly sucked into Miroku’s Kazaana. And somehow, that produced the appearance of the modern time priestess in the world of a certain blue skinned, S–class, Akatsuki member. Kisame x Kagome x Deidara
1. Prologue

**Story type:** Inuyasha and Naruto crossover.

**Summary:** Kagome and Shippou are unwittingly sucked into Miroku's Kazaana. And somehow, that produced the appearance of the modern time priestess in the world of a certain well known, blue-skinned, S-classed Akatsuki member.

**Pairing: **This is my attempt at Kisame x Kagome X Deidara. Why Kisame? I guess I just wanted something a little different… This story's probably going to be very unsuccessful and/or flamed to an immeasurable extent. Oh well... Bring it on!

**Disclaimer:** I am neither the owner of Inuyasha, nor the owner of Naruto.

**Prologue**

She hated this. She really did.

Currently, Shippou was trembling as he clung to her left shoulder with all the strength his small, childlike fingers could muster whilst she, herself, stood with a tense posture; back straight, feet firmly planted in the dirt covered ground and arms taut, aiming her arrow carefully at… nothingness.

She hated not knowing what she'll be facing. Not being informed and prepared for the imminent danger ahead. Not knowing from _where_ the danger would be coming from.

Like every other time their small group was entering battle, her heart thumped erratically as a thousand thoughts and images rushed through her mind within the time frame of a blink of the eye. And, once again, she found herself shoving them aside to analyze later -that is, only if they were to survive whatever was heading their way.

She hated the waiting. The baited breaths. The suffocating feeling of unsureness.

Although it was comforting to know that Miroku and Sango, along with Kirara, were up in the air above her, scrutinizing the horizons with their more advantageous altitude. Sango's normally serene face ('normally' being if you didn't count the times when a certain monk would try to innocently help her brush off the invisible dirt that had suddenly found itself on her behind) had become a mask of fierceness, and Miroku's was a smooth façade that had erased itself of its usual happy-go-lucky look and twin mischievously shining orbs were now nothing more than hardened stones.

At the forefront of the formation, garbed in his customary flaming red haori, stood Inuyasha with Tetsusaiga at the ready. His ears twitched and swiveled in every which way as he tilted his head back, bringing his nose higher up in the air.

He sniffed once. Twice.

Then a low rumbling growl could be heard as his grip tightened around the tattered looking handle of his humongous sword before he uttered a name that the group knew all too well: "Naraku."

Thoughts flooded furiously past her inner barrier as she was drowned in them.

'What if we don't make it?'

'Inuyasha… I…'

'Ow! My shoulder hurts. Next time I'll have to tell Shippou to be a little more careful of his claws.'

'Will people in my time miss me?'

'I wonder if my hair doesn't look too bad; I'd at least want to leave a decently looking corpse behind.'

'Will they only remember me as the sick girl?'

'My legs feel like dead weights.'

'Maybe if I were extra pretty when I die, Inuyasha would choose my corpse over Kikyo's.'

'Next time I go home, I should bring a gun back.'

'Something's closing in behind me!'

The last thought finally succeeded in pulling her out of the torrent of nonsensical notions her frazzled nerves created as her body instinctively moved aside. Shippou let out a surprised yelp as his fingers dug even deeper into the material of her green sailor shirt.

She turned to look at her assailants, only to immediately clamp her lips firmly shut so as to stop the ramen she had earlier eaten for lunch to come out through the wrong way. Before her was a vast army of cat-sized rat youkai. They were all covered in grimy brown hairs as they milled about, their bodies squeezed against one another's, letting out squeaks through irregular intervals as they charged forward, accompanied by the Saimyoushou.

Sango and Miroku were already in action. Hiraikotsu swiftly cut through a few dozens of the youkai before being caught and re-thrown, while a substantial amount of ofudas were attaching themselves to a few random rats before being activated, purifying the unlucky rodent and its surrounding comrades. During the interval between which her mistress threw and caught Hiraikotsu, Kirara swooped down, mindful of the two humans riding her, and swiped at the grubby bodies with her large paws, each of which were adorned with what looked like incredibly long and deadly curved knives.

Inuyasha, however, paid the small youkai no mind as he was otherwise occupied with Naraku's laughing puppet who was both gloating and taunting him. The baboon-fur clad figure easily dodged the silver-haired hanyou's infuriated swings of Tetsusaiga.

"Kagome! What are you doing? Run!" Shouted a frightened Shippou rather loudly into her ear just as a band of approaching rodents threateningly snapped their jaws at them.

'Ow. My eardrum.' Nevertheless, Kagome did as the fox-child said and ran for all that she was worth, cursing herself for having forgotten to relieve herself of her bright yellow backpack and scanning the area for a beneficial vantage spot from which she could fire her arrows away without coming into harm's way. Sadly, the young miko was but a modern time human girl, and no matter how fit she was, she couldn't beat the demons that were gifted with superior speed at birth… even if they were rats.

And so, she and the auburn haired kitsune found themselves tumbling to the ground, being pinned, scratched and bitten by their chasers. Within seconds, they had been submerged within the throng of nezumi youkai and not even a glimpse of them could be seen anymore.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Sango was tiring, he could see it, and even Kirara was slowing down in her attacks. Miroku took a second to look around them and found that all he could see was a sea of wan brown moving toward them from all sides.

'I don't have a choice. Time to finish this.'

The houshi made sure both Sango and her nekomata companion were behind him before quickly ripping the prayers beads away from his cursed hand and directing said hand at the youkai and the Saimyoushou, gritting his teeth as he felt the poison slowly entering his system. 'Mmm? What was that sound just then? I would've sworn it almost-'

"Houshi-sama! Stop!"

Sango had noticed. He had hoped that he'd be able to suck in a few more before stopping and succumbing to the poison currently pumping through his blood, but the taijiya had grabbed a hold of his arm from behind and had placed the prayer beads back to their previous position around his right hand. "You know you shouldn't use the Kazaana when there are Saimyoushou around!"

"Of course, Sango, my beloved. Whatever you say." Replied the monk with a nod of the head and a complacent look plastered on his ruggedly handsome face, violet orbs twinkling as his cursed appendage inched towards…

The demon exterminator had blushed prettily upon hearing the word 'beloved' fall from the mouth of the purple clothed man as he addressed her. Nonetheless, the reason for the redness staining her cheeks had rapidly altered from embarrassment to anger. "Houshi-sama…"

"Yes?"

A very loud slap was heard.

Miroku gingerly rubbed his cheek as he mentally congratulated himself for having prevented the taijiya from worrying, and went back to fighting with his staff and his ofudas. Remembering their silent spectator, he threw a playful wink at the saber-toothed feline whom had witnessed the entire exchange with contained mirth, and mouthed the words 'Lovely, isn't she.' before sighing wistfully.

The great neko youkai shook her head as if exasperated, before continuing the tearing through of the mass of demons while keeping a sharp eye on her mistress and the weakened hentai, making sure they didn't overtax themselves unnecessarily.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kagome and Shippou had both felt an unnaturally strong current of wind as they, along with the nezumi youkai who were viciously slashing at them with their claws, were pulled off of the solid ground and toward the general area where they had guessed Miroku and Sango to be.

"This… is not good." Whispered Shippou as he still clung to the teenager with one hand and used the other to perform a quick, and rather pitiful, Kitsune-bi.

"I think I realized that, Shippou." Kagome sighed, as she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes in defeat.

'Well… it looks like I won't be leaving a corpse at all.' Was the last thought that passed through her head before she felt herself being sucked into her friend's wind tunnel with the sound of Shippou's frantic screaming ringing throughout the expanse of her ear shell. Giving her one heck of an earache.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Ok, so plummeting unceremoniously into Miroku's Kazaana wasn't exactly as he had envisioned it. He'd always thought that there'd be some kind of excruciating feeling of being ripped apart… or something to that extent. Yes, he had an overwrought imagination, but that wasn't to say his reasoning was without reason. What with all the screaming the usual low-grade oni made when being pulled towards the lecherous houshi's black hole. In spite of that, Shippou soon learned that Miroku's hand-intergraded personal vacuum cleaner did nothing more than pull you towards it like a very very VERY strong magnet would attract smaller trinkets (and that the foolishly screaming oni were only screaming for the heck of it).

Although there was no pain, falling indefinitely for an unknown period of time in a chasm of growing shadows wasn't all that comforting either…

The Saimyoushou and nezumi seemed to be pulled downward as well. Even as the ugly red eyed insects desperately flapped their translucent wings as fast as they could, it did not hinder their rapid descent in the slightest. Their struggling went in vain and their effort only served to create a ruckus.

Kagome was a little ahead of him, with her eyes closed, her arms loosely hugging the colossal bag as she would a pillow, and strands of unruly raven hair fluttering around wildly. She was obviously completely unaware of her surroundings and as everyone and everything seemed to be declining at the same pace no matter what they attempted to do (as was previously proven by the Saimyoushou), Shippou decided to let things be and join her when they landed –_if_ they landed.

The faint light -of unknown origin- that had allowed him to see his surroundings throughout the first few minutes of his arrival in this dark gulp was slowly diminishing.

As the minutes trickled by, the only thing the little kitsune could use as an indication that they were still plunging onwards was the feeling of rushing air passing by. He stretched out his left hand and squinted, not being able to see his fingers nor the hand itself. Great. He was engulfed in obscurity, didn't know his destination, and couldn't even count on the familiar comfort he would normally received from Kagome since she was dead to the world.

'I'm too young for this! I'm only a kid!' He lamented to himself as he blew at the strands of soft hair tickling the bridge of his nose in irritation. He sighed, wishing he was elsewhere, before staring blankly at the darkness before him, waiting anxiously for whatever was destined to happen to happen.

Moments passed, the trip was long and dreary for the usually energetic and sugar-powered seven year old (by youkai terms of course). However, just as he went through the motions of a rather wide and what would have been lengthy yawn, he was caught off guard by the beam of Kagome's Hama no reiryoku. The kit's enhanced eyes quickly adjusted themselves to the sudden luminosity as he made out the form of the still peacefully slumbering priestess slowly fade from the dimension of this endless free-falling pit with every increase of the pink light.

Immediately on alert, Shippou tried reaching for the figure of the much larger teenager, fearful of being separated from her and terrified of what was happening to her. He kicked, he clawed, he punched, snarled, swam, screamed, even produced a handful of his wailing mushrooms. Still, nothing seemed to work; she wouldn't wake up and he couldn't reach her no matter how hard he tried. His cluttered mind overheated as he thought of possible solutions.

A soft, sleep-induced voice drifted to his fragile-looking pointed ears. "Anou, Shippou-chan?"

His head snapped towards the sound and he managed to cry out her name with a slight, pitiful tremble in his voice before it cracked under the heavy emotions of his thundering heart.

She smiled gently at him before the light faded away.

She was gone.

She was gone and he was now alone in the vast darkness of a hole of unlimited depth. He squeezed his eyes shut and fought the same feeling of helplessness he had once felt when he had wound up alone after the death of his chichi-ue.

xXxXxXxXxXx

She had thought she'd heard the little auburn haired fox call out to her, yet it also may have just been a dream. She dearly hoped it was. She had never seen the little kitsune so heartbreakingly sad.

Still feeling the gentle finger tips of sleep brushing against her eyelids, she shook her head to rid herself of its touch as her eyes slowly flickered open.

'Huh. Must have been a dream.'

She was still at the campsite their group had cleaned up yesterday. She yawned, reassured. Her right hand came up to her mouth as her lips parted. Standing up to stretch her stiff muscles, she smirked as she looked for the figure of a purple-cheeked monk on the ground; a site that she had learnt to wake up to every morning throughout the three years she had spent shard hunting.

The unconscious Miroku was nowhere to be found. She blinked.

Scanning the empty campground, she panicked. Had the dream been real? Did the Inu-tachi really face another one of Naraku's assaults? Did she and Shippou really get sucked into the Kazaana? But then… Where was she? And where was Shippou?

She quickly closed her eyes, took a deep, relaxing breath, and forcefully pushed her distress away.

This wasn't the feudal era anymore, that's for sure. The air wasn't as pure. She took another noseful of oxygen and analyzed it. It wasn't as polluted as her time either. Maybe she had gotten herself to somewhere between the 21st and the 16th century? Probably. The position of the trees was similar to that of the campsite she and the band had been in before the mêlée –although the trees themselves seemed bigger and denser.

She sat down, drawing random lines in the dirt with a stick as she considered her options. She didn't know how to get back to the feudal era and she didn't know where she was. To put it simply, she knew slim to nothing about 'here'. Her only bet was to find someone; anyone she could squeeze some information out of.

'So that leads me to civilization.' Kagome nodded her head decisively and stood up. 'Find civilization. I'll worry about the rest afterwards.'

She covered up her recent presence within the clearing -something she had long learned to do after a rather nasty experience with a stalking low-level youkai and an absent Inuyasha- before she started trekking in a straight line, hoping to eventually find herself out of the crowded population of greenery.

xXxXxXxXxXx

The girl was an idiot: that was a certainty. He didn't know how she had suddenly appeared out of the skies or who she was, for that matter, but to be as stupid as to not suspect anything when you wake up to find yourself in someone else's camp, you must be pretty damn stupid.

He and his rather annoying partner had immediately jumped into the safety of the trees as they had felt someone approach, surprised that a hunter-nin had actually succeeded in tracking them down. However, it turned out that the one who had approached them with such speed was not a ninja. It was naught but a young girl. And to add to that fact, she appeared to be semi-unconscious, floating harmlessly to the ground as her heart beat and breathing were gradually accelerating. At that point, he had already relaxed somewhat and could feel his colleague do the same, given that she did not seem to be of any threat to them and was weaponless as well.

Startlingly, the girl wasn't as innocuous as she had first appeared. As soon as her fairly short green skirt touched the ground, a flash of pink occurred. The immediate area received a charge of strong foreign power before the light dimmed and went out at her next heart beat.

The onna had awoken. He brushed away a golden strand of hair as he watched anxiously, half expecting another ripple of the potent energy to course through him again. Blinking a few times, she stood, stretched herself leisurely, and assessed the vicinity before panicking for seemingly no reason. His masked counter part flexed his legs in anticipation, ready to attack if she had discovered their presence. He, himself, was about to jump down, when the girl startled him yet again by sighing dejectedly before dropping tersely to the ground once more. She prodded the dirt ground with a stick absentmindedly as she entered some kind of pensive gloom.

After an undetermined amount of time, in which his back had started to cramp and his co-worker had shifted on his feet somewhat noisily (the girl must have had poor hearing to have not noticed the sound), the foreigner stood anew and started trekking toward the center of the forestry with an air of resolve. What was she up to? Normally citizens –he had deduced that she was a citizen, albeit an unusual one, since even a genin would have noticed the loud shifting of his partner- tended to stay away from the forest and its dangers, not head towards its epicenter. Furthermore, she had left their encampment (after doing a rather crude job at covering her tracks) while humming noisily under her breath. Something that was sure to attract any and all the missing-nins out there who were looking to have a little fun with a live practice dummy.

Really, she had nil in the survival instincts department.

xXxXxXxXxXx

She should be nearing the forest's edge by now, shouldn't she? After all, she had been walking for an entire day now and nothing even remotely similar to a town or village was yet to be seen. That is, of course, if you didn't count that one time she had mistaken a few sand piles for little, far away huts until she had blinked her eyes several times only to discern and feel her right foot crushing the sand that had given her the illusion of a village.

Maybe she should try climbing a tree. One that was tall enough to permit her to maybe spy a human settlement. The only problem was that she wasn't such a good climber and the majority of the trees seemed to not have any lower branches for her to use as a foothold. She walked a little further to a huge boulder placed near a seemingly ancient beech. She wasn't sure though, it could have been a sycamore for all she knew about wood life- which wasn't much at all. She had learnt the basics of surviving in a forest from all the traveling she had done with the group, but with all the fights that kept occurring and all the studies she had to catch up with, she really didn't have the time to look up or learn about anything but the essentials on wild life. And knowing which kind of tree was which had never been very high up on her importance list.

Thus she commenced climbing the boulder, then the tree of unknown type, and slowly made her way to the very top of it all.

"Don't look down, Kagome. Just don't look down and you'll be fine," she said out loud every step of the way. Although she had been on higher grounds, that was usually with the comforting knowledge that a nearby Inuyasha would catch her the second she showed even an inkling of falling. Which wasn't the current case.

Once she reached the highest branch she was allowed to -the upper branches didn't seem sturdy enough to endure her weight- she squinted into the distance and saw… sand. A gigantic body of sand. An enormous desert. She huffed and turned the other way... only to behold trees.

Kagome was frustrated. Very, very frustrated. She had walked all this way only to find that she was heading toward a barren waste land of sand. And if she turned back, she'd have to retrace her steps back to the beginning with an extremely empty stomach to boot (plus, she wasn't even sure if she could retrace those steps since she had a very strong inkling that, regardless of her efforts, she had not been walking in the straight line she had wanted to). She threw the desert a dirty look and cursed her fate, when she saw, or more accurately, felt human auras beyond the vastness of the sea of yellow grains.

She had never been able to detect a presence before, usually only depending on her gut-feeling and instincts (maybe she had spent a little too much time with Inuyasha). Bar the shikon shards and the demons with extremely dark and oppressing ki, she couldn't even detect a stampeding herd of elephants if her life depended on it. Not wanting to employ her befuddled brain more than necessary, she ascribed it to the manifestation of her latent miko powers caused by her stressed state of mind.

Nodding her head decisively, she looked down and promptly grasped onto the sturdy trunk with trembling hands. After a few calming deep breaths, the green clothed girl slowly made her way down, searching for each branch with her feet as she resolutely kept her eyes upwards.

"Aren't those clouds just lovely? Yes, yes, they are. Just focus on the pretty clouds and you'll be fine, Kagome. You'll be fine." She felt silly, asking and answering her own questions, though it did make her feel safer. Therefore, she maintained her monologue, until she crashed down the last few feet, having casually forgotten to use the boulder, with a resounding "OW!"

She spent a few precious seconds cursing Karma, Fate, Kami, and anyone else who could have brought about her this series of misfortune, before tottering off en route for the arid region that lay before her.

xXxXxXxXxXx

It had stopped. Whatever had been towing them down had ceased it's execution, and he found himself hanging stagnant in the air, surrounded by the buzzing and squeaking of the demons around him. His carroty tail swished with irritation as he waited for the next proceedings to unfold.

Unexpectedly, after 20 or so impatient waves of his tail to and fro, he crashed against hard, solid ground. Quickly standing up, he punctually dodged a few nezumi that had also come tumbling down. His pointed ears twitched as he heard the youkai who landed quickly disperse as they scampered away.

Shippou shoved his hands into his pockets as he looked around sullenly. There was nothing to see, all was engulfed by black. The darkness seemed to devour any particle of luminosity that dared to show itself. He could feel himself shiver despite the quickening flow of his blood, a sign that his body was vainly trying to warm itself up. He was cold. His feet were the coldest. He sat down, planning on rubbing the paw-like appendages to warm them up when his hands met with… nothing.

He knew his feet were still there, he could feel them frozen and hurting. Even so, his hands couldn't touch them. It was as if he were disappearing.


	3. Chapter 2

**Warning: **I just realized (because of a very helpful reviewer) that there might be some readers who only follow the anime. Sorry guys, but if you haven't read the manga, there will most definitely be a few spoilers in my story...

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Long blond hair streaked by, hiding his left eye from the sight of others as the strand occasionally whipped his cheek. He and his partner, Tobi, were once again in the forest where they had formerly stumbled upon the singular female, seeking to come across her once more.

They had contacted his associate's previous superior, Zetsu, and informed him of the strange girl they had encountered. They were apprehensive of the amount of power she seemed to sustain within her petite body and of the fact that they had both been incognizant of her approach until she was naught but a few meters away. Zetsu had then conveyed the message to the Leader who had, subsequently, ordered them to tail the lass and collect additional information on her, gauging the danger she might represent to Akatsuki. Ever since the deaths of Sasori, Orochimaru and Kakuzu, without omitting the grievously mangled state Hidan was in, their small organization had become even more circumspect than precedently. Hence, here they were, dashing through the foliage, searching for a trail that might lead them to her locality.

A white, ostentatiously crafted bird flew to him, lightly tapped its foot on his shoulder once, before kicking off and heading west. Wordlessly, the two Akatsuki members closely followed the exotic looking bird. After an undetermined amount of time, the snow colored tori chirruped before exploding with a muffled bang and disintegrating into the air. Deidara halted, signaling Tobi to do the same. They easily spotted the female leisurely walking across the wide expanse of sand. Her footprints were perfectly aligned toward Sunagakure as her destination became crystal clear. Strange, commoners wouldn't have found the hidden village so easily, especially when the sand village was involved.

Sunagakure was encompassed by sand on all sides. The huts, the shops, and the majority of all its buildings were made to be colored in the same yellow as its surrounding landscape, offering a perfect camouflage. Additionally, as if it weren't enough, naturally high cliffs and sand dunes acted as sheltering walls that hid the birejji from view. After all, it wasn't called a hidden village for nothing.

"What is she doing, Deidara-senpai?" Asked his masked counterpart relatively loudly. "She won't survive in the desert without any equipment or provisions."

For once, Tobi was right. And though he did not wish to appear clueless, he didn't know what she was machinating either. Glancing over at the orange swirl pattern of the newest member's mask, he muttered, "She's crazy, hmph."

And that was the only answer he could come up with. Especially at her slower-than-a-snail pace, it would take her leastwise four days to reach Sunagakure, which was, coincidentally, the nearest village around.

From there on, they maintained their distance and kept a steady eye on her as she sweated bucket loads under the harsh red sun of the arid tract.

As time passed, night's dark veil slowly crept forward and covered them with its brilliantly shining stars as the half crescent moon hanged precariously onto the sky. The girl was trembling and the chatter of her teeth made itself audible in the still air.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kagome had known that it would turn out colder at night, especially in a desert where there was no water to mellow down the contrast of temperatures, however she had not quite expected it to be _this_ cold. She cursed herself for having forgotten to bring something to cover her poor shivering body with. As she reflected upon that thought, she agnized that she should have brought along some water and food as well.

Sighing at her utterly disorganized state, she surveyed the wide horizons and found a rather shallow cave that could serve as a moderately comfortable shelter. Settling down was a simple affair. Not having much to do, inasmuch as she didn't have any supplies, she clumsily cleaned the floor by sweeping the uncomfortably prickly grains of sand away with her bare hands, before nestling into the somewhat curved, sunken surface at the rear of the grotto.

xXxXxXxXxXx

They were settled a little way further, behind the cavern's opening, and could hear her slowly deepening breaths. She was falling asleep. Good. That meant they could take a break and rest for some time as well. No need to worry about loosing sight of her when she's sound asleep.

"Eh. Deidara-senpai? Since you're the senpai and tire less easily, would you be so kind as to take the first sh-"

"Absolutely not." The older one cut in. "As you have said, I am senpai. Subsequently, I'm the more important one, so you shall be the one taking the first shift, hmph." Normally, second shifts were the most dangerous, therefore they would bicker for the first. Yet the desert was a different story and they both knew it; most shinobi traveled through it during the mornings and evenings, when the temperatures are at their most tolerable level. As night came and the temperature lowered drastically, rare were the chances of other nins coming across them. Hence, they now squabbled over the one who will be first to attain some shut-eye.

"Aww. Senpai's just a selfishly mean idiot who only thinks about himself!" Declared Tobi with a childish, whiny lament to the sympathetically twinkling stars above. A bonk on the head and a well placed threat to 'predict' the younger member's death was all it took for Deidara to win the argument, as well as regain the previously blessed silence.

Just as the clay artist slowly drifted into the tranquil state of slumber, a flash ahead brusquely roused him up. For a fleeting moment, the scenery changed. There was no more sand, or cave; he could clearly see the girl dozing off a few meters away, unobstructed by the rock made wall of the formerly extant cave. He, the girl, and Tobi were seemingly stuck in an empty expanse of nothingness. There was no ground, at least not a visible one, and no other living beings either. It reminded him of a dimension not unlike that of Itachi's Mangekyou. And weirdly enough, a humongous bright-yellow backpack, that hadn't existed just a few moments ago, was lying docilely next to the sleeping girl. For a brief second, he had considered the possibility of the strange teenager having discovered their whereabouts and trapped them within a genjutsu, when, like greased lightning, the odd landscape disappeared. Before them, there was once again nothing more –or rather 'nothing less'- than an endless expanse of desert.

He broadened his senses and realized he could no longer sense the young woman's presence. Casting a coup d'oeil at his associate's bedazzled look, he rolled his eyes, decided the idiot would currently be useless, and darted toward the cave. His visible eye narrowed suspiciously as he glanced around the vacant space.

"Tobi, the onna is gone. Hmph."

As the gelid desert wind swiftly carried the news to the younger man, Tobi's right eye noticeably enlarged as he too rushed to the small enclosure. He scanned the area nervously, before conceding that Deidara was right. Furthermore, there were no other life forms within a five-mile radius.

"So… Where'd she go? Do you know Deidara-senpai?" A harsh flick to the back of his head was all the answer he got before the blond sulkily returned to their previous campground.

"You're still taking first shift, hmph. We'll rest here today, and report back tomorrow." With that said, he shifted imperceptibly before falling into a feather-light sleep.

xXxXxXxXxXx

When Kagome woke from what felt like a long and lazy catnap, she found herself in front of her beloved backpack while being shrouded in darkness. Bizarrely, the place gave her a weird sense of déjà vu. And it wasn't until she had finished one of the bento boxes that she had had the foresight to stash within her worn-out bag with a satisfied little burp that she recognized the backdrop as the one she had seen in her recent dream concerning Shippou.

The bleak obscurity was everywhere. She couldn't exactly _see_ as she usually did. But, rather, instead of using her eyes, her mind had instinctively given her a picture of the place. 'I feel like a bat.' Was one of the random thought that appeared within her mind whilst she foraged through the bag, searching for some cleaner and warmer clothes to wear.

After having wrapped the material of a thick cotton-made hoodie around her, she snapped the clasp closed and felt her eyes droop as she laid down, using the yellow pack as a makeshift pillow. Slowly, her mental vision of the surroundings wavered, Shippou's forlorn face forbore her mind and gave leeway to the more congenial visualizations that come to us in the wispy shape of dreams.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Tobi was snoring, albeit faintly, it was still an unwanted sound of loud breathing that even the feeblest of ninjas achieved in containing while asleep. It was a matter of survival, after all. Deidara really couldn't comprehend why the organization had accepted the worthless runt. It was not for him to decide, even if he had to be the one to team up with the annoying fellow. As the artist sat cross-legged with an irritated frown upon his face, his attention was abruptly jerked toward the cavern the girl had inhabited. And it seemed like she was, once more, occupying it.

'Odd.'

As his sharp senses focused on her, he realized that she would soon be awakening. 'Had she been asleep all along?' If that had been so, then where _had_ she been? She couldn't have stayed in that particularly hostile looking dimension or whatever it is, could she?

Either way, he awoke his hopeless team partner with a satisfyingly loud bonk to the mask and a hushed cry of 'itai'. After rapidly cleaning up camp, they continued tailing the oblivious girl.

xXxXxXxXxXx

The same pattern occurred during the five days that followed. The girl mobilized slothfully and he had feared of running out of provisions. As their dilemma over nutrients came up, it had also brought up another inscrutable question.

The girl was clearly not carrying a single item other than the clothes, shoes and odd necklace she was donning. How did she manage to survive for so long without any food or water? And even weirder was the fact that she'd disappear under their very eyes every night, only to return in the morning with a different vesture. Sometimes, when they were shacked up close enough, they'd find themselves being pulled into that same strange empty world once more before being hurled back into the desert. Tobi had freaked out on the third day and had shakily declared that he would announce their discoveries to Zetsu, while leaving Deidara to resume shadowing her alone.

'Wuss, hmph.' But he had furloughed the coward, wanting to solve this mystery on his own.

Presently, he found himself watching her every move with added attention, especially during the coming of night, right before she disappeared at each time. So far, he only knew that she vanishes when she falls asleep, and that her name was, presumably, Kagome. The latter was an easily obtainable piece of information, as she seemed to largely enjoy conversing with herself.

On the eighth day, his ring had been activated and Zetsu had informed him through mind-speech that the Leader wanted him to bring the girl back to their temporary Headquarters for a deeper analysis of her powers.

Grumbling and irritated, he acknowledged the order and reluctantly agreed to do the Leader's bidding. He had been content about following her at a distance, but did not enjoy the thought of being possibly drawn into that weird world of hers if he ventured too close.

Shaking off the uneasy feeling his recent ideations gave him, he plastered a confident smirk upon his lips before landing a few meters in front of the mysterious girl with a few chakra-induced leaps. A surprised look formed upon her face as her eyes widened in shock and her body froze.

"Thank Kami!!!" She cried out as she smiled and rushed towards him.

That had not been the reaction he had expected.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kagome was tired and grumpy. For the last couple of days she had been traveling through the endless landscape of sand, having the feeling of never nearing her goal as her feet dragged, leaving visible footprints on the ground.

At times, she'd close her eyes and force her senses to reach out, trying to find the multitude of presences she had felt atop of the giant tree. But to no avail. She could only continue on and hope she was heading toward the right direction.

Every night, she'd fall asleep, only to awaken in that dark realm. She'd feed and hydrate her aching body with the contents of her trusty backpack before falling asleep again, waking up to the view of the yellow and barren site she had started to despise.

Today, however, had been different. As she walked in a roughly straight line, monologing to cover up the silence that enfolded her within its depth and forcefully trying to ignore the burning sensation the harsh rays of the red sun created on her sensitive skin, an unusually dressed blond man had appeared before her with a friendly smile.

She was saved!

Smiling back, she rushed towards him, ecstatic about her first meeting with a human life form in this era.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Deidara felt his smile fade as surprise took over. Did she not recognize his clothing? She should have. He _was_ dressed in the traditional Akatsuki attire. A few years or so ago, the acknowledgement of the existence of Akatsuki had been spread like wild fire throughout every nook and cranny of the continent, or so they had thought. But it seemed that the news might have missed a few dark and dusty corners. Perhaps she was from one of those small isolated villages that seldom reached outward. It made sense. If her raiment was anything to go by, she most certainly did not come from one of the more known regions. If she had, she'd have known that that shade of green hadn't been in style for a long time. What an eyesore. Even though she had changed her clothing daily, she seemed to like that dreadful green ensemble the most. He snorted. She was wearing that same outlandish and rather outré rig today as well.

"Ano… Pardon me, but it seems like I have wondered off to Kami knows where and," she peaked through her lashes as a light embarrassed blush fanned her cheeks, "if it isn't too much to ask, could you point me in the right direction toward the nearest human settlement?"

'The nearest_ human_ settlement?' Deidara stared back at her stoically. Why did she add 'human'? What other settlements are there? Monkey settlements? Not feeling up to making use of his brain just yet, the missng-nin shrugged it off as another weird speech pattern from another weird village. And chugged it to her wanting to ask for the nearest non-missing nin settlement instead. At that thought, he grinned.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"You won't need to worry about that, hmph."

"H-huh?" It had been the only thing she had managed to utter as she blinked stupidly. The guy -who's gender she had been unsure of- had startled her with the low and obviously male baritone he had used to speak to her.

His visible eyebrow lifted slightly with a smirk drawn upon his lips, "You're coming with me." He stepped forward and stretched open a palm toward her. For a second she had thought that he was beckoning her to approach. A small, fascinated gasp escaped as an elegant bird flew out of his hand, growing larger and larger, till she could even see each of the tiny furs on every one of its feathers.

Similar to the first time she had noticed Inuyasha's ears, she experienced a sudden urge to touch the delicate looking bird. Biting her lips she looked up to the stranger, silently asking for permission, but he gave no response. Returning her gaze to the glorious creature before her, she saw rather than felt her shaking hand reach out tentatively. The winged beast did not move, it merely looked at her with curious attention, taking its reaction as consent, her fingertips descended upon its neck and lightly brushed against the length of one of the plumes. _Strange._ It was cool to the touch and, instead of being the soft texture she had imagined, it was rather smooth and a little hard.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Deidara watched her amazed look with pride; finally someone who appreciated his work. His ego boosted to all new levels as he patted himself for, once again, having created an artful masterpiece. His smirk grew, 'Maybe this won't be so bad after all.'

"Is it a youkai?"

Deidara's eye widened. "What? Hmph."

"Youkai, I'm asking you if it is your pet youkai. Normal birds wouldn't be able to grow so big you know…" Kagome hadn't been sure if the demon race had been yet extinguished in this new era she had landed in. Even so, it seemed that they were still around if that odd bird was any indication.

"Youkai… And why would I have a youkai pet, hmph?" He scanned her suspiciously. So maybe she did know the Akatsuki and their gathering of the Jinchuriki.

"Well, if it isn't a demon, then what is it?"

The eyebrow raised itself once more. "C1 clay infused with my chakra, it's my jutsu."

"Wait- woah, woah." Kagome raised her hands in front of her as she gesticulated for him to slow down. She looked at the stranger questioningly. "Chakra? Jutsu? What are you talking about?"

Deidara was stunned. From what village did the girl come from? Even though most people weren't shinobi, they _did_ know what chakra was. He sighed, stored the question up for later and picked her up with ease as she let out a squeak. Slinging her over his shoulder, he carried her to the clay bird and carelessly deposited her on its back. For now, he reminded himself, he still had orders to follow.

Kagome glared up at him from her slumped position on the bird's back as the wind from its steadily beating wings blew her hair in every which way. "Hey! Hey! What are you trying to do? Kidnap me?" She hadn't been in this era for long. Therefore, she reasoned, they couldn't have already found out about the shikon… right?

She saw something flash through the hair obscuring his left eye as his uncovered one moved to look at her. He grinned. "Yep, this is a kidnapping. Hmph.'


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

The flight was a silent one. Deidara stood to the front, looking ahead whilst zooming his lens in and out whenever something notable caught his fleeting attention. The girl had calmed and become silent. She sat with one arm hugging her legs to her chest and the other gripping onto his craft's rough feathers anxiously. She appeared to be sulking, which was fine with him; there were none of the customary raving high-pitched screams that strained his eardrums. Nor did there seem to be any foolish half thought out plan being concocted in her mind.

Her comportment was strange and suspicious, yes. Nevertheless, he decided that he'd let it pass since she had been surprisingly acquiescent during the whole process of getting kidnapped. After all, he had had quite a few unpleasant experiences from several previous kidnappings he had undertaken. Namely, the bijuu abduction. That woman had been stubbornly bothersome to catch.

Kagome huffed, curling herself further into a tight ball. They were traveling at a leisurely speed, but the winds were strong, especially this high up, and she could already feel the uncomfortable numbness creeping into her toes as she wriggled them. Her thin sleeveless shirt and short skirt did not help in the least as goose bumps surfaced on her arms. She hugged her legs even closer to her chest, as her other arm firmed its tight hold onto a patch of the rough feathers, desperately trying to anchor herself the best she could. She huffed, closing her eyes tiredly, hoping to fight the cold with the drowsiness of sleep. Her head gradually lowered to rest on her knees while her hand slackened its hold and her anxious body slowly loosened up its muscles. As her consciousness darkened and blurred, she began to enter the dimension she had now dubbed 'Black Dreamscape Land', reminding herself to dig up a few blankets from her flashy bag in order to help warm up her semi frozen limbs.

Deidara had been indolently gazing at the passing clouds above when he felt the ripples of her chakra dim and become stagnant. He had now studied her for enough days to recognize the beginnings of her falling to sleep. Panicked, he quickly set out to bat away her drowsy state of mind, knowing that at his current distance from her, he'd most likely be sucked into the creepy world as well. A thought that did not bring him an ounce of cheer.

"Oi!" Kagome's nose twitched. She ignored the loud sound and clung fiercely to the sense of distant comfort that had been slowly encompassing her. "Oiii!" The noise repeated itself, louder and clearer with an accompanied (and slightly painful) jab to her forehead. As she reluctantly lifted her heavy lids, a gust of viciously cold air slapped her face and fully woke her up. Her vision focused and she found the face of her peculiar purple nail polish adorned male kidnapper bare centimeters away from her own. "Thinking to get away by falling asleep? I'd reconsider, hmph."

After having reassured himself of her complete wakefulness, Deidara stood and returned to his previous spot, at the front. "Put this on, hmph."

Kagome blinked, and a strip of black cloth sailed her way. A cloth most distinctly destined to serve as a blindfold. She had had a great number of kidnap-ee experiences and, if she had learnt anything from them, it was to stay calm and follow orders until having formulated a rational and realizable mean that had a high rate of ensuring her evasion. Notwithstanding those precious gems of acquired wisdom, she was currently a thoroughly pissed off Kagome who had just been unpleasantly woken up and did not feel a single smidge of compliance within her body. Balling the piece of fabric up, she hurled it back at its provenance, who caught it effortlessly with his left hand as his gaze was still kept ahead, busily watching the landscapes roll by. "I'm not putting that on. Especially when I'm several hundred feet above ground. Nuh-uh, no way." The refusal was accompanied by a vigorous shake of her head.

He twisted his torso, resting his steady glare on her. She lifted her head up, not wanting to show any weakness, and glared right back into his clear gray-blue eyes defiantly.

She was more concerned about falling than what he could possibly do to her whilst blindfolded? Deidara's brows raised and his mouth curled upwards devilishly. She was… amusingly naive.

"Hey! What's so funny?" She snapped. "Why are you smiling all of a sudden?" Kagome did not like the way his eyes were twinkling. On the other hand, seeing as he didn't seem to be upset or angry at her comment or actions, she decided to risk venting a little more, just to get the frustration out. "And while I'm at it, you _do _know that the temperature this high up isn't exactly warm, right? _You_ might not notice with that big cloak of yours, but I'm not exactly dressed up for the weather. For Kami's sake, my ass is turning into a popsicle here!"

His smile widened as his eyes lazily lingered on the creamy flesh of her exposed legs. She caught a glint of his sharp canine, and if she hadn't know better; for she hadn't felt a single drop of youki whatsoever come forth from him, she would have wholeheartedly believed him youkai. "Listen up lil' girl, you're going to put this on or I'll make you, hmph. Don't forget that this is still a kidnapping. Just because I haven't hurt you yet, doesn't mean I won't."

The blindfold was once again presented to her. And as he handed it over, she was certain of having seen the flash of a weird smiling mouth tattooed to his palm. Furthermore, she was also certain that the mouth hadn't been there a few moments ago.

'Great. Now, I'm seeing things!'

Her eyes pinned the damnable cloth down with all the blistering frustration she still felt before holding her hand out. She hesitated, but swiftly made up her mind as an ominous gleam entered his eyes. Clenching her teeth, she reached for the black strip and tied it on, cautiously observing him all the while, until her vision was entirely obstructed. Once the knot was secured, both her hands reflexively went back to griping the feathers edgily, the absence of sight allowing added insecurity to set in.

"Hmph." Pleased with the girl's temporary obedience, Deidara sat down cross-legged before her, fixing the majority of his senses on her, ready to detect any augury of the beginnings of somnolence and prevent it from happening.

xXxXxXxXxXx

It was cold. The air pressuring against the surface of his skin was cold. Even so, he himself felt warm. Too warm. Too hot.

The disappearance of his body had completed itself. As he had completely vanished, he found himself re-emerging anew into a space that was no longer vacated. The dirt, the stones, the branches and the plant life that Miroku had erewhile absorbed into his Kazaana were now visible to him, along with the youkai and other unfortunate souls that had been likewise sopped up.

As he regarded the new milieu, Shippou noticed that all objects and living beings alike seemed much more… colorful. The bleak darkness still shrouded the contours of any and every thing, but suspended particles of light- that had most likely also been reluctantly pulled into this strange void- created just enough spark to allow the use of sight. And the contrast it created on all entities allowed them to seem more vivid. Were it the mud or the flowers, they all seemed more _alive_. Which was quite ironic, taking into account the place he had landed himself in.

And as surprising as it was, there seemed to be new life in this desolate world. Stretching a few miles before him was a market buzzing with activity. To his right was a wide expanse of a forest made out of dead tree. Puzzlingly, the ancient trees were as verdant as young sprigs. It was as if time had been stilled and all that should have been putrefied were instead petrified into a state of eternal dying youth. Terrifying. Alluring.

Shippou bit his lip, a nervous habit he had learnt from Kagome, and turned left. It held a broad vastness of open fields and much less life. Though he loathed being alone, he feared the bustling market even more because of the very high likelihood of encountering one of the inu-tachi's numerous preceding foes.

So through the fields he went. Rambling for hours, maybe even days or weeks, since there were no means for one to count the flow of time in this curious dimension. During his lengthy voyage, he had not felt a single urge to sleep, eat or drink, and even when he burned with heat, nary a drop of sweat had shown itself. Not knowing where to go nor where he was, he trekked on blindly, hoping his untiring legs would guide him to the right spot.

He walked, and walked, and walked… For how long? He knew not. Nevertheless, his faith had served him well as he finally found himself standing before a magnificently aged palace of wood. A remarkable change from the tall stems of vivaciously departed green grass. Pushing forth a false feeling of bravado to mask and contain his fear, he stepped onto the first of many steps and ascended towards the entrance.

When he finally reached the top, he grinned triumphantly and lifted his eyes from the stairs to the doorway. Shippou blinked, jaw ajar as his brain slowly registered what he now saw. To his front, on either side of the entryway, stood two perfectly smiling Miroku look-alikes.

xXxXxXxXxXx

As the clay bird flew on, Deidara was pleased to note that the girl hadn't tried to fall asleep again. The top of a tiled roof could already be seen peeking out from the thick forest foliage as they approached ground. Landing with precision and ease, Deidara hauled the oddly –but not unpleasantly so- silent girl over his shoulder and jumped off just in time to avoid the explosion. Gazing back at his handiwork, he grinned smugly, ignoring the suddenly hysterically shrieking girl in his arms. 'That oughta've alerted the others of our arrival.'

And just as he had predicted, the others did arrive, with an exuberant Tobi being, sadly, the first.

"Wah! Senpai! You brought her back!! You really_ did_ bring her back! Unbelievable!"

A twitch of the eyebrow, "What is that supposed to mean? Are you insinuating something here, Tobi? Hmph?"

"Eh? Whatever do _you_ mean, Deidara-senpai?" An emphasized weary shake of the head and a lift of both arms into a shrug, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that senpai's too dense to catch on to anything."

"Why you little- "

Before he could start using a few fairly creative expressions to describe his younger teammate, a rather irritated voice interrupted him. "Um, excuse me, but in case you haven't noticed, I am still here." A light pain to the back informed Deidara that the girl had just delivered him a feeble punch in aggravation. "And I'd rather not listen to this somewhat…" She searched for a less insulting, but still proper word and found none. So she contented herself with the original one she had had in mind, "stupid conversation of yours."

"What? This conversation is not st- "

"The girl has a point."

Whirling around, he was met with a pair of blood red sharigan eyes and a seemingly amused grinning blue face.

Disgruntled, but hardly one to enter a brawl with one such as Itachi Uchiha, (besides, he doubted the Uchiha would even lower himself to brawling,) Deidara glared at the red-eyed Akatsuki before turning his back to the offender. At said gesture, the blue-skinned man's grin enlarged to expose even more inhumanly sharp teeth.

"Hmph. Whatever. I brought the onna back." He let the girl fall to the ground with a thump. "Where's Zetsu no danna? Let's interrogate her and be done with it."

The girl untied the blindfold, cautiously at first, but when no one made to stop her, she ripped it off gratefully. Standing up slowly, she glared at them, silently willing magically flaming daggers to appear and attack them. However, the rather fierce gesture was ruined by her hand gently rubbing her injured rump. "What do you want with me?"

Tobi, ever the eager one to talk, made to answer her but only managed to utter out an "oof" as Deidara harshly jabbed him in the stomach. He smiled, satisfied by the pained sound. That was pay back for having called him dense.

Kagome, having already figured out that those two would rather quarrel than answer her, turned toward the other pair, ignoring the garbled sounds coming from the masked man as the blond proceeded to strangle him. The one who had spoken to her abductor had an intimidating air about him. Anyone with a brain could figure out that he was not one to be messed with as his perceptive red eyes took in every minutia of his surroundings. The other, the blue man, he was the most unusual of the bunch. Though he seemed not to contain any trace of youki, he did remind her of a shark. A giant shark who had just found himself a nice little prey to play with. She gulped as his alien eyes fixed upon her. "If it's the jewel shards you're after, I'm not giving them to you!"

The shark-man frowned, but it was the expressionless red-eyed man who responded. "Of what jewel do you speak of?"

Kagome gulped. 'Oops. Maybe I should have just kept my big mouth shut!'

She looked away, trying to hide her flustered state. "Eh? Jewel? Ahahaha… Ano, I just thought that you were thieves or something… And… Eto… The only jewelry I'm carrying is this necklace." She lifted the bottle of pink jewel shards up for them to see.

"So I just assumed that you wanted these. They're not valuable or anything. Erm.. I just don't want to give them to you, because they were the last thing my late father gave to me before he died." Forced tears ran down her smooth cheeks as she sniffled lightly, silently pleading for her father's spirit to forgive her lie.

Kisame restrained a snort. The girl's lying abilities were exceptionally poor to say the least; her hands were sweaty, her feet were pointing inward, she kept stumbling upon her words and her eyes never strayed higher that their noses. As he stood behind Itachi, trying not to laugh, he watched as her head finally lifted upwards to look at their expressions, verifying if her prevarication had worked. She worried her lower lip as she first looked towards him, then she winced as she turned toward the Uchiha.

Realizing that the two bickering idiots had quieted, Kagome glanced their way and found her blond kidnapper looking at her with a skeptical brow raised high. The swirl-masked man was harder to figure out, but judging by his stance and his crossed arms, it looked like he didn't buy her bluff either.

The young priestess cursed. She _had_ gotten better at lying ever since the hunt for the jewel shards had begun, but it was also a fairly easy task to lie to her undoubting friends and the ignorant Hojo. To them, Kagome was a good girl who only missed school because of her frail immunity system. But it seemed like, all in all, her skills still weren't that extraordinary when the situation called for it. 'Next time I go back, I am _so_ taking up acting classes.'

She gulped. The most unnerving one of them all, the red-eyed man, was slashing through her diaphanous veil of lie with his painfully piercing gaze. Just as she was about to open her damned mouth again (which would have most likely lead her to even more trouble than she was already in), scarcely a few feet away from her, some sort of plant life started growing at an alarmingly rapid rate. It developed. It matured. Only to have a human looking face starting to form within its center.

But a few nanoseconds later, Kagome found a green haired man before her. Half his face was shadowed as he stood, in all his glory, with his head ensnared within what appeared to be a Venus flytrap.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

'Idiots.'

Naraku forcefully tightened his hold on the sliding door, cracking the hard wood, before hurling it shut with an obstreperous 'ban'. He had not expected _that_ to occur. Reviling the gormless group's negligence, he wondered why the task of eliminating them had become so onerous.

This time, he hadn't been contriving on toying with their brittle emotions –that was a trifling process that simply garnered him a temporary hobby, enduing him to idle away the prosaic hours. This time, he had meticulously orchestrated a plan that would –_should_– have certified him success._ This_ time, he had been out to secure their jewel shards with earnest, no subsidiary plans included.

He had spun his web with care, judiciously laying out all prospects, munificently lathering the indiscernible threads with his viscous glue of concealed warriors, professing illusions and recondite artifices; leaving his prey no exits, no escape, and completely enmeshed. He had smiled portentously as he had instigated the first step of the scheme. He had chortled as he had watched them toil. But when the girl had disappeared, cleaned out by one of their own, he had thundered with an incredulous rage.

They had bungled his seemingly flawless stratagem.

The one possibility he had not prognosticated had happened. He had neglected to bestow his glue upon _one_ of the many threads. Within millions of the interconnected filaments, a lone vein had been left untouched. There had been an ignominious miscalculation on his part. In the end, he _had _ceded them a minimal escape. And as his fortuity would go, they were typically impelled to find the irretrievable needle in the proverbial haystack.

Upon realizing the divergence of the coveted jewel shards from this world, he had gauged the following proceedings abortive and had forthwith withdrawn his forces from the messy lot.

'Really. They have become entirely too bothersome.' He frowned.

'Even though the outcome has led to their own detriment as well as mine.' His brow smoothened as the anger left him. Pale lids closed upon bleak pupils. He breathed in the miasma-induced air with a tiny smile.

Perhaps it was time to meet them face to face…

Kanna's expression remained unchanging as she witnessed the unforeseen shimmer of exultant hauteur appear from the depths of her master's onyx black eyes.

xXxXxXxXxXx

They had each been fighting the annoying sea of rodents when, brusquely, the horde had pulled back and scarpered off in waves. Immediately apprehensive, the group scoured the area charily. Combing through every strand of grass and every branch of every tree with adroit proficiency, until they came upon a hefty knot that left their chest empty with dread. Inuyasha was the first to notice it.

As per custom, whenever a battle was halted, he had looked to check upon Kagome's state, knowing that she was the most at risk because of her scant knowledge in combat (at least, that's what he told himself while he batted away the harrowing constriction of his heart). His senses, enhanced by his demonic bloodline, had forewarned him of a truth that had made the stricture within his chest that much more agonizing. He had felt –and was still feeling– the throbbing of his blood flood throughout his entire being as he had discerned the missing scents he was now fanatically searching for.

A scruffy Kirara was next to detect it. After having inspected both humans within her care, she had immediately perceived, even in her wearied state, the absence of two of their companions. The feline growled weakly as an unpleasant sensation slithered over her, coolly stroking her risen fur.

Miroku and Sango had quickly caught on to the situation when they had heard the unnerved rumble arising from the broad neko. Tensing, they stood ready for the appearance of a cackling Naraku with a captured Kagome and a wailing Shippou entrapped in his clutches. What met them was far worse.

The mournful wind howled; blowing away the thick blanket of stillness that had enclosed upon them. Inuyasha's ears twitched before he sheathed Tetsusaiga angrily. His head hanging listlessly from his neck as a screen of his silvery bangs shielded his eyes. "The bastard took Kagome and the brat." He paused, before becoming aware of his worried sounding voice. He snarled out the rest, trying to cover up his lapse. "_And_ the fuckin' shards."

"Perhaps." Miroku's shakujo jingled lightly as he stepped forward, his voice was smooth and tranquil, trying to soothe the upset hanyou. "It would be in his character to leave after having acquired what he desires."

Golden orbs were shown through the curtain of sleek hair as Inuyasha snapped his attention to the monk. "What do you mean 'perhaps', bouzu?"

Miroku could feel the weight of Sango's inquisitive gaze just as well as he could feel Inuyasha's dangerously blazing aura. He cleared his throat apprehensively before daring to look up, meeting his grimly irate companion's sweltering glare.

"Well, it seems a tad aberrant for him in the respect that –if he _had _indeed captured Kagome-sama and Shippou– he had not used them as leverage. He would have been able to easily influence our restriction with the threat of our companions' safety and allow himself an effortless removal of us all. Or, he could have used them to lure us into a readied trap. Either way, he would have assured us of their captivity in order to exploit it for his own benefit. Do you not think it strange that he did no such thing? After all, we are one of his biggest obstacles." The purple clothed monk stopped, staring at his cursed hand pensively. "Then again, to him, we are merely an angry troupe of flies he can easily swat away with his legions of faithful youkai."

The stark sound of beads hitting beads could be heard as he played with the stringed restraint tightly trussed around his damned hand. Inuyasha's anger subsided somewhat as the hanyou shifted on his feet uncomfortably. The customarily serene monk's eyes were far, far away. "He likes to dissect first. See how far we can go without a leg, a wing, maybe a dream." A pause, followed by a frustrated sigh.

He stopped playing with the stringed ornament and let his left hand drop limply to his side while his cursed one coiled into a fist. With his angry gaze fixed to the soil beneath his feet, he grunted, having realized too late that he had allowed too much of his equanimity to flit away.

"Houshi-sama…" Hesitancy could be heard in her usually confident voice, her brows were knitted worriedly upon her lovely face. Brown eyes glimmering, she approached him with a reaching hand that shyly rested itself on his shoulder. Miroku closed his eyes and exhaled gently, his hand gleefully stroking the soft curves of her wonderfully sculpted rear end with zest.

"Sukebe!"

The rebuked Miroku flatly fell to the ground with a ridiculous beam, all the while contemplating the peculiar stir of an itch scratching at the back of his mind. Had he mislaid a vital factor re Naraku's perplexing behavior? Shrugging it off, he concentrated his unfocused vision on the swaying rear of the annoyed slayer as she fervidly stomped away. Ah, yes. Double vision is such a wondrous thing when used aptly. His eyes closed as consciousness faded, leaving him with the image of twin backsides swinging teasingly at him. 'Mmm... My precious Sangos, don't be shy... _just_ a little closer…'

xXxXxXxXxXx

Through closer inspection, one had slenderer eyebrows, while the other had a small scar on the corner of his chin. The scarred one stepped forth and bowed respectfully. "Greetings, youkai. What business may you have with us upon such a delightful day?"

The slender eyebrowed one joined his brethren. Folding his torso in an exact replica of the blemished one. "Please leave this site, for it is a holy ground. If you do not comply to our humble demand…"

"We shall have no choice but to slay you." Completed the scarred one with an ebullient smile.

Shippou stared.

(Giro…)

And stared.

(Giro…)

And blinked.

"N-N-Nani?"

Both look-alikes glanced upwards from their bent positions. "Is there something you do not comprehend?"

"Nan-… Ore… Kimi-tachi wadare…?" Shippou shook his head ferociously, getting rid of the sensation of seeing double and assuring himself that his eyes were not crossed, but perfectly lined ahead. "Is this some kind of trick ja?"

The idea that this might have all been a silly prank (despite heavy evidence to the contrary) reassured the small fox-child as he fearfully clung to the dubious possibility. "If this is some sort of stupid plot so that you can spy on Sango and Kagome bathing again, it's not gonna work ja! You perverted monk!"

Two identically callous shakujo landed precisely on either side of his rotund cheeks with a few clear tinkles and an uncompromising 'tonk'.

"Really! To suggest such a thing…" One of the purple clad figures, Shippou was unsure of which (given that the dual clouts he had freshly collected had rattled the clarity of his thoughts as well as his, now star-prickled, vision), had struck a theatrical pose of affliction while pressing his free hand above his heart with his face scrunched up in artificial pain.

The other had slapped his palm to the side of his face with an ersatz expression of shocked horror. "Young one, you wound us with your entirely too false accusations!"

They blathered on, "We are but humble monks…"

"To think that we would go and spy on…" At this point, Shippou was grumbling tetchily while edgily awaiting his progressively realigning eyesight, chiefly disregarding their inane jabber.

"…delectable young maidens…"

"…what I wouldn't give to glimpse upon…"

"…lovely legs…"

Their timbre grew wistful, "…slender necks…"

A small jerk momentarily took hold of their right hands. "…soft, _soft _buttocks…"

And with a harmonized dreamy sigh, they released the youthful kitsune who had been awkwardly squashed beneath their heavy staffs.

"Itaitaitaitaitai!" The newly freed prisoner tenderly rubbed his swollen features. "What was that for?!"

"Such cruelty!" Slender Eyebrows bellowed.

"Such a heartless creature!" Intoned Scarred Chin.

"To have reminded us of what we can no longer touch!" Continued Slender Eyebrows with aggrieved hoarseness.

"What we can no longer… cherish!" Chanted Scarred Chin as a painfully painted look of longing drew itself upon his countenance.

Both their right hands twitched again, as if on cue.

Shippou looked at them speculatively. "Um… Miroku?" He rasped, profoundly doubting his previous unsubstantiated belief that suggested the whole incident to be an elaborate hoax by the ero-houshi, but still hoping for the contrary.

However, at the ingenuously uttered name, both hen no bouzu turned towards him in a flash and bent down, accommodating their substantial height difference.

"You have met my grandson?!" Cried out Scarred Chin as he clasped the tiny humanoid hands of the one they had mercilessly assaulted scarcely a few instants ago.

"You have met my son?!" Exclaimed the other monk as he pushed the first one aside and laid his own claim on the fox's hands.

"Well of course he has met him! He _is_ here, isn't he?" Another shove and another grab at his hands.

"Who are you to talk? You were the one to ask the stupid question first!" A push, then a claim.

"I only did it out of courtesy! As a way of-" Shove. Grab.

"And I was doing-" Push. Claim.

"-opening a conversation!" Shove. Grab.

"-any different?!" Push. Claim.

"Ano… Are you guys really Miroku's otou-san and ojii-san desu ka?" The red haired kit peered forward and stared suspiciously at the two rather un-monk-like monks. At their emphatic nods, he carefully snatched his precious hands away and placed the abused appendages behind his back.

'Well… that's not hard to believe. Especially with those disgustingly perverted leers plastered on their face.' Shippou closed his eyes glumly. 'Just like Miroku.'

He groaned helplessly.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kagome's mind went blank for a second or thirty, before she quickly readjusted her thoughts and accepted it as fact. A plant had just turned into a man. A man was just eaten by a Venus flytrap. They had just morphed into a plant-man. A… vegetable man? A comatose?

'Snap out of it!' A well-placed mental slap did the trick and Kagome returned to the planes of reality. She scanned the poor man. 'How unfortunate. Being stuck inside a plant. He probably stepped on it by mistake or something. Maybe it's actually a youkai Venus flytrap? But… There isn't any youki emanating from neither the man nor the plant.'

Kisame watched as the girl's face finally settled on one of the various emotions that had flickered through her eyes. Concerned, she stepped forward and reached an unsure hand toward Zetsu. The shark man frowned apprehensively. What did she think she was doing?

"Dai- Daijoubu?" Her fingers gently fluttered against the greenery wrapped around the pale man. The plant widened its opening to reveal a little more of its occupant. Her outstretched hand froze. What she had assumed to be shadows hiding the other half of his face had turned out to be the genuine color of his visage. It wasn't the natural dark coffee shaded skin of what they called 'black' people. But, more accurately, his skin was tinted in the color of black. As in _black_.

Black like coal. Black like _black_.

And the lighter hued half was white.

White, white, _white._ Like a sheet of bleached white paper, w_hite_.

She didn't even know the guy. And it would be incredibly rude. But she just _had_ to figure it out. So she further stretched her suicidal hand and firmly brushed her thumb against his impossibly pale cheek. Retracting her arm, she glanced at her finger curiously.

Nothing. No powder or cream or… whatever she had expected to be coating his face. She extended her upper limb again, going for the other darker cheek.

A blue hand appeared and stopped her by securely seizing her thin wrist. "Ah… I would not recommend it." She traced the hand to its owner. And found a _blue_ face. It was the blue shark-resembling man.

Yet again, curiosity struck. She lifted her un-captured hand and went through the motion of brushing her thumb against the Shark Man's cheek, not unlike what she had done to the Vegetable Man a few moments ago. Her thumb came back with naught again. Not even the slightest soupçon of a blue or black tint. Hmm. These people ('People;not youkai, Kagome,' she reminded herself) were…

xXxXxXxXxXx

'Strange.'

That was the sole word (other than 'self-murderous') he could come up with to describe the girl. And that word seemed to fit her excessively well. When he had finally grasped that she was _touching _Zetsu (thankfully, it had only been on the male's more indulgent white side) and was about to try and make contact with the green haired man's incredibly volatile (and incredibly _cannibal_) dark side, he had stepped forward and stopped her for everyone's benefit. The visualization of a crotchety Zetsu feasting upon his most favored fare was discomfiting… to say the least. When the girl had actually done the same to him, grazing his rough skin with that winsomely daring finger of hers, he had been caught off guard. Not many were sufficiently comfortable to be in such close adjacency to him on the first meeting, much less _finger_ him.

Be it friends or foes, they had all necessitated of a selected amount of time to accustom themselves to his objectionably distinctive appearance. Though, the ninjas, with the wacky lives they led, always seemed to need much less time than the ordinary civilians. That was one of the reasons why he had been urged to become a shinobi. However, from Tobi's gallingly animated reports, this girl was most definitively a (stone-deaf) civilian who held absolutely no survival skills –this last part being undeniably easy to believe.

With heedless candor, she had smoothly delineated one of his many gill-like markings located between his atypical white eyes and high cheekbones with her soft pad. A rushed feeling of contented warmth had instantaneously promulgated through him like soothing tidal waves that gently lapped at his body.

Human contact.

He had yearned for it as a child and, hitherto, had seldom received it. Another reason why he had joined the shinobi ranks.

Though it was hardly the same, when a kick or a punch came his way, there would be contact. Delicious contact. And as he struck them with Samehada, reaping their chakra away, the heat of their power engulfing him... _Almost_. Almost like a tender caress. And so he craved fights, relishing them with addiction.

He plucked her other wrist, attached to her still roaming hand. It was just as slim as the first. Grinning down at her, now having confined both her limbs, he murmured, "I would not recommend that either." Triangular sharp teeth showed themselves, and her widened eyes descended to them, fixing upon the sight.

She licked her dried lips, feeling the skin dampen and expand faintly as the uncomfortable feeling of parchedness went away. And then, she asked the inevitable question. "Are you a demon?" Sure, she couldn't feel any demonic energy from either of them, however, she decided, that didn't mean they weren't cloaking it. Because, all things considered, it was _impossible_ for them to be human. Something flashed, prior to evaporating from his extraterrestrial eyes.

He was still grinning as his grip began strangulating her slight joints (Kagome winced, wondering if her bones have splintered yet). "Find out for yourself." He whispered gruffly, distancing himself. Though his face was as smirkingly unreadable as ever, Kagome had an ambiguous hunch that she had rubbed his temperament in an erroneously wrong approach.

Seeming to have had an afterthought, his mouth slackened before broadening even further. "That is, if you're still allowed to remain alive after the interrogation."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Deidara sulked. Really, Kisame just had to go and ruin the fun.

He sniffed brashly, not disliking the notion of watching the performance a ravenously famished Zetsu would have enacted at the imminent touch. The clay master didn't regard himself as a sadist or an inordinately violent person, and he much preferred the refinement of his art over watching someone else dine. Nevertheless, his entrenched philosophy was that 'art was a bang'; no matter what, it was only beautiful if it was a fleeting beauty. And the girl was… _pretty_ enough to be reckoned as… attractive (though her ugly green ensemble dimmed it). Either way, to see her prettiness cease as Zetzu devoured her would definitely be classified as a fleeting beauty (though barely, seeing as she was _only _pretty) in his books. The lack of an explosion would, without a doubt, blight some of his fun, but it would still be an interesting depiction to behold.

And consequently, he had watched with anticipating glee as the extraordinarily stupid (understatement of the year) girl had extended her soon-to-be-no-more dainty hand and was _just _about to graze the sinisterly colored skin –his breath caught– when the stupid shark had interfered.

'Not that it will ever happen again.' He thought wryly. Kisame rarely lost his temper outside of battle, but he had never been fond (another huge understatement) of those who had dared label him a demon.

Cursing the officious shark, Deidara mourned the loss of what would have been a majestically picturesque scene. 'Ah well, better luck next time.'

He hung behind the lot as Zetsu headed inside the large wooden structure, followed by a chirping Tobi, a calm (as always) Uchiha and the silently brooding Kisame who had a subtly unremitting hold on the now squirming girl.

They entered a small dark room. The little amount of light present was filtered through various small openings the size of finger-poked holes littering randomly on the wooden walls. Truth be told, only the Uchiha and Zetsu would have been enough for the task. However, as the Akatsuki had once again decided to lay low for a while, the days had been remarkably dull. And thus, the normally vacant room found itself housing five cramped individuals within its walls. The girl was led to sit on a lone chair as all members spread out across the space. Zetsu stood before her, as still as stone; face impassive, whilst, situated behind the black and white interrogator, the Uchiha trained his sharp Sharigan eyes on the sagaciously apprehensive girl.

Though the Sharigan couldn't detect lies, its power of foresight and the honed vision it furnished its possessor, coalesced with Uchiha Itachi's own perceptiveness was as good of a lie detector as it could get. The questioning commenced.

"_**Who are you?**_"

'And let the fun begin.' Happily leaning against one of the walls, Deidara attentively watched the ensuing events. 'If she turns out to have been a waste of time, I might be apportioned the disposing job.' Deidara grinned giddily at the likelihood of being conceded with the opportunity of creating another one of his fabulously explosive artworks.

Author's note: Here it is! Once again, sorry about the mishap! Though I'm still not entirely satisfied with this chapter. Ugh, I feel indecisive about posting it… And it just seems a bit off. However, I don't exactly feel like going back over it again (since I've already done so one too many times for my indolent liking). Constructive criticism would be very much appreciated (and needed), because there's just something _wrong_ about this chapter but I, sadly, can't put my finger on _what_. And it's playing hell with me!


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"_**Who are you? **_"

Kagome jumped at the low voice that vibrated through the small room with an almost robotic twang. She went through the motions of swallowing –although nothing was there to be swallowed in the first place– before answering in a startled voice, her shock numbing the truth out of her. "Higurashi Kagome."

"_**How old are you? **_"

This time, she had paid close attention, and there had definitively been a computerized quality to his tone. While processing this unusual piece of information (had he smoked too much and gotten throat cancer or was he just a vegetable cyborg…? Did that kind of thing even exist?), her lips answered while her brain had been occupied. "Eighteen."

"_**From where do you come from**__**? **_"

She berated herself for having carelessly given so much information away, though they didn't seem all that important anyway. She chewed her lips, deciding that it wouldn't matter, she mumbled back the answer grumpily. "From up north." Or was it west? She wasn't sure anymore, since she _had _been eye-bound during her unusual flight here. Wait, eye-bound? What kind of word was that? Yep, she was definitely starting to get tired.

"Up north where?"

Kagome faltered. 'Is that the same person speaking?' The oddly color split man's voice had just changed drastically from the threatening mechanical tone she had not quite gotten used to, to that of a young man.

Entirely too surprised, her mouth had once again run ahead of her. "Up north, Tokyo city. But I don't think it's…" _Been built yet. _Had been what she was about to disclose. The contours of her eyes stretched out to their fullest as she promptly clamped her mouth shut. 'Stupid! Stupid! Are you _trying_ to make your own life harder?'

Kisame's eyes narrowed. 'What was she about to say. From the look of her open-booked face, it must have been of impor-'

"Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii?" Deidara groaned as he heard the hyperactive shout of his foolish, stupid, imbecile of a partner. "Nani? Nani? Nani? What were you gonna tell us? Was it something important? Was it a… secret." The last word was said in a harsh gasp, although whether it be for dramatic effects or caused by the flaxen-haired guy's thwack to the Masked Man's head, Kagome knew not.

Either way, she hurriedly tried to remedy her faux pas.

"No!" She lied starkly through her clenched teeth, shaking her head, vehemently denying the Masked Man's suggestion.

Itachi raised a brow, determining that, for now, he would not need to step forward and inform the others of the palpable lie. They had most likely already identified the evident falsehood of her words. His assumptions were proven correct as Zetsu flicked the shouted statement away nonchalantly.

"_**Where is Tokyo? **_" Questioned the Vegetable Man with his hostile mechanized vocals.

"U-up North! I already told you!"

Her palms sweated. 'Kuso mouth! Why did you stutter!'

The vegetable man was clearly unsatisfied with her answer as he made an annoyed, distorted-sounding grunt. "_**Where is it **_**specifically**_**? **_"

Resigning herself to the fact that she really _did_ need to join Lying 101, she despondently resolved that whether she lied or not would have produced the same results. Kagome sighed, "I don't know anymore." As things were, she might as well tell the truth, but not the whole truth, and maybe score some 'be nice to me' points with them. After all, actress she was not, but self-preservative she was (though, unknown to her, a few would readily disagree). She could try to just tell the truth but keep the juicier parts to herself. Yeah… that might work… "I don't even know how I got here or why I woke up in a weird forest in the epicenter of Nowhere."

"_**Of which country are you from?"**_

"The one of the Rising Sun." Kagome gave him a strange look, she was still in Japan, right? But if she wasn't, then maybe that would explain their odd appearances. Perhaps, in other countries, the youkai and the ningen were less at war with each other and had interbred so much that their offsprings, while still carrying demonic features, did not bear youki within them.

'Aha!' Thought Deidara with a hint of triumph, 'I've never heard of that country before; I was right, her lack of common knowledge is caused by her living in such a reclusive, unheard of realm.'

"We are in the era of ninjas. Every inch of the surrounding lands have already been wholly uncovered. It is improbable that your Rising Sun has gone unnoticed for so long. " Again with the voice change, it was starting to creep her out. He had probably deduced that alternatively repeating the exact same question with different voices might have elicited a forthcoming answer from her. 'Not that it really would change much,' thought Kagome a little glumly while her gaze darted across the room, 'I'm just as confused as the rest of you.'

"Yeah? Well we haven't heard of you either, wherever here is." She shrugged. Hey, she was getting the hang of this! Maybe this half-truth mojo really is going to work out for her.

As she started regaining her clam, her brain suddenly registered the piece information she had just been provided with.

"We are in the era of ninjas"

Kagome sucked in a deep breath as the rusty wheels of her brain frenetically turned at the fastest speed they could. By 'era of ninjas' the Vegetable Man was probably referring to the time period between the Kamakura and the Edo era, during which epochs ninjas abounded throughout the lands of Nippon. But if it were so… She really was in the past... or, technically, it was more like the future of the past? Either way: Woah!

"_**What is the significance of the jewel shards you bear upon your neck?"**_

She stared at him, the abrupt change of subject startling her, before her face scrunched up in annoyance as she pushed down her nervousness. "I already told you, my outo-san gave it to me–"

"_**What is the significance of the shards?"**_

A deep frown formed upon her brow. "My father gave–"

"_**What is the significance of the shards?"**_

The neutral tone of repetition was starting to freak her out. She wringed her hands and answered once more, "I got it from my fath–"

"_**What is the significance of the shards?"**_

The blond sighed loudly, shooting her a look of exasperation. "Just answer the damn question truthfully or he'll keep repeating the question, hmph. It gets real irritating real quick.

Kagome ignored his advice, leaning forward in an act of frustration she pinned the Vegetable Man with a glare. "I've already told you! My fath–"

"_**What is the significance of the shards?"**_

xXxXxXxXxXx

Deidara rolled his eyes and grunted. Why didn't anyone ever listen to his counsel? This was going to be long.

The girl pursed her lips and an expression of pure stubbornness invaded her face as she stared silently into Zetsu's eyes, having seemingly decided to not deign to reply. Zetsu stared back, face as blank as ever. The girl uttered a low growl, before abruptly turning toward him, mayhap thinking that if she directed her answer at another person, it'll finally do the trick. "I already told you guys that the jewel was a gift from my–"

"_**What is the significance of the jewel?"**_

She swiveled her attention back to the carnivore (not that she knew that Zetsu was a carnivore… pity, he would have liked to see the expression her face would have made had she know). "Would you _stop_ that!?" She cried, faintly pulling at her long, raven hair with a tense hand.

Zetsu was unaffected. "What is the significance of the shards?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

The change to the human voice gave Kagome slight pause as she eyed the Vegetable Man warily, not knowing if the change was a good or a bad thing. The room fell silent for a short instant before she declared that it was "none of their business".

"What is the significance of the shards?"

A short burst of fury burst through her weary system as she noticed Shark Man smirking cruelly as Vegetable Man continued his verbal assault.

"Alright, alright! I give! I collect them, they're supposed to be rare. And if you can find all of them and put them together they will make up the Shikon no tama, a legendary artifact, the most precious of all. I've spent years traveling around, collecting these, so you had better not take them away from me!" Hah! Take that! She had deduced from earlier that they didn't really seem to care or know much about the Shikon shards, so telling them this much won't really matter. After all, she had been careful not to say that it was an _overwhelmingly powerful _artifact, only that it was legendary. Kagome happily patted herself for an omission well done.

'Years? She's been looking for pieces of this supposed legendary bauble for _years_?' Deidara groaned to himself, slumping further into the wall. 'Great, I picked up a brainless, tasteless, obsessive treasure hunter.'

With Itachi's indicative stillness, the dubious Akatsuki accepted her story as truth and Zetsu pressed on. "When did you arrive here from your mysterious country?"

"I don't know…" She blew at one of her bangs, before tucking it behind her ear when it fell back in front of her eyes. "A few days ago. Like I said, I fell asleep and woke up in a forest. Then, I just started walking around and thought that maybe, if I could find someone, I might be able to figure out what was going on."

"Are you aware of the events that transpired during your sleep?"

"Eh?"

Deidara leaned forward with interest, his back temporarily leaving the wall he had been nonchalantly propped upon. "Hmph, do you experience… a change of scenery?"

She bit her lower lip as she tapped the corner of her mouth contemplatively. "Well, I sort of… go to this really bizarre place. It's completely dark, but, oddly enough, I can still see the things around me. Which isn't much, since all there is in that place is my backpack. I don't know how it got there, but it's really useful. I can change my clothes and the next day, when I wake up, I find myself wearing what I had changed into."

She had described the location as bizarre; therefore it must not be an environment she was used to. Deidara found it bizarre himself. If she didn't come from that place, then why would she be sent there every time she took a nap?

"_**Is this place in connection with where you come from?**_"

"I doubt it. Where I come from, places like that don't exist. In fact, where I come from is completely and utterly non-magical. So… there aren't any… people who are trapped in plants (no offense)," She smiled up at him sweetly, just in case he did take offense, "or people with red eyes or people with blue skin (unless it was painted) and they usually don't fly on top of huge birds or wear masks save for special occasions."

As she pointed out each of their inimitable ways and qualities, Kagome suddenly realized how abnormal she must seem to them. After all, if the amount of idiosyncrasy she attributed to them was any indication of how peculiar they thought she was, then they must think her an alien. Now that she recognized that she was undeniably outside the binds of her own time space, she had to wonder: Were they aliens? Did she land herself on another planet? After all, they didn't possess even a drop of youki within them (and when she had asked about it, she had received, upon both tries, odd replies). But they did speak her native language…

"Wow! I must be extremely weird to you!" She exclaimed, voicing her thoughts. "I mean; if you think I'm as weird as I think you are then I must be _really_ weird to you guys!"

"Without a doubt. You're character is way too chirpy and brain-dead for my tastes, hmph." Replied her vexing kidnapper with a lazy look of boredom.

Kagome's figurative feathers ruffled horridly as she let out an indignant huff. "Brain-dead! Well I'm not the one who keeps saying 'hmph' all the time!"

"And I'm not the one who was dim-witted enough to just pour out all that information to complete strangers who had just kidnapped you!" Countered Deidara with a smirk, though his eyebrows created the tiniest crease as he struggled to edit his speech pattern. If he hadn't insulted her and if she hadn't been so angry and tired and uncharacteristically crabby, Kagome might have found the slight furrow of his brows a little (only a _little_) cute. After all, his little hmphs at the end of each sentence had heartrendingly reminded her of Shippou's jas.

As things were, redness seeped into her cheeks and her offense rose. "Well, _excuse me_ for trusting you!" Alright, so that was not true, but it was the first comeback to have popped into her head. Silence plopped down and reigned within the atmosphere of the room. The blond seemed to have found himself at a loss of words. Mutely, she wondered about the momentary flare in his eyes (they seemed to do that a lot, his eyes, that is).

"Really?" Piped the orange masked man in an adorably childish manner. "You trust us?"

Great, now she felt bad for having (somewhat accidentally) lied. "Well…" She twiddled with the red piece of cloth tied to the front of her uniform, "You guys didn't really hurt me yet, or tied me up –except for the eye bind… and you're the first people I've met so far."

"Oh" Tobi half-whispered in awe. "Wow, did you hear that Deidara-sempai? She trusts us!"

Deidara grunted noncommittally as the idiot bopped around excitedly. She was such a dumbass. What kind of person would just go ahead and trust people who had kidnapped and interrogated her? Of course they hadn't hurt her yet, she had answered to all of their questions without having needed any further, much more unpleasant (at least for her), urgings.

Kisame resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the foolish scene that was happening within the _Akatsuki headquarters._ That new recruit was still unequivocally too trusting, and he was being played right into the girl's hands.

"_**What do you know of youkai?"**_ Ringed the mechanicalized question, cutting short Tobi's elated giggles.

_Urg… I wish he'd stop with the voice swaps._

"Not much," She pursed her lips, now came the tricky part. If youkai didn't exist here, then why would this question even be asked? But if they did exist, why couldn't she feel it? The reactions she had previously gotten when she'd mentioned anything demon related had been peculiar, not scared, but… "Why do you ask?"

"We're Akatsuki!" Declared the Masked Man proudly.

Was she supposed to congratulate him? It seemed so. "That's very nice… ano… What is Akatsuki?"

Instead of answering her, Vegetable Man merely repeated his question, which also seemed to have been a cue for Masked Man to shut up. Pity, she could've used some more information, 'we're Akatsuki' didn't really tell her much.

"I only know a bit about them, I've never really been an expert or anything." There, she had answered but avoided the question.

"Tell us what you know." Oh, so he was going to push was he? Well, there wasn't much she could do, besides she only knew the basics so whatever she could tell they would already know, what harm could it do? For once, she was glad to be lacking in knowledge.

"I know that even the weakest of them have strong auras, much stronger than normal humans. They are almost always guided by their baser instincts, they can live much longer than us, even several hundreds of years. They are physically superior, but sometimes their mental capacities aren't as refined as their bodies. Each has their own individual attacks and specialties. And, usually, those with an animal form have the same strengths and weaknesses as the creature they incarnate."

Kisame his eyes narrow at the girl. She had said that she didn't know much, but that was more than your average commoner's information. Had she once been acquainted with a jinchuuriki?

Zetsu nodded. "This session is finished. Leader-sama will decide upon your fate. If his verdict is favorable, we shall continue the interrogations on a later date. " And with that said, he sunk into the ground and left.

Kagome rubbed her eyes. "Did I just imagine that or…"

"Haaaaaaaaiiiii! Zetsu-sama can disappear like that! Isn't he awesome?" Exclaimed the masked man, giddily rocking back and forth on the ball of his heels.

Kagome blinked furiously, trying to straighten her jumbled mind. "I guess."

'Get a grip, Kagome! It's not like you haven't seen stranger things happen.'

The Red Eyed Man stepped forth, gave her a stern look and walked out the door. "Come."

"Hmm?" Confusion molded onto her face as she turned to the most approachable of the three remaining men for guidance. And advice was promptly offered, in a disturbingly gleeful tone.

"Ooooohhh! You'd better do what Itachi-sama says! It's not a good idea to get him angry." The Masked Man told her, clapping his hands giddily before grabbing her forearm and leading her forward. "You know, I thought that today would be boring. And then you came! And now it's super UN-boring! Hahahah! Did you know that Deida…"

Kagome nodded absentmindedly as the Masked Man talked away, easing the tension-filled air with his bubbly voice. She looked at his happily gleaming eyes and smiled softly; he almost reminded her of Shippou, but… maybe a bit older, judging by the slight scratchy quality to his voice. The pair quickly caught up to the steady, indiscernible footsteps ahead.

As the Red Eyed man turned another one of those numerous turns he had seemed to do increasingly often, he came to an abrupt stop.

She would have bumped into him had the jovial Masked Man not (thankfully) yanked her back. She glanced up with a grateful smile, only to catch the flash of something bitingly serious flit beyond his lone orb. She blinked and the Masked Man was jumping up and down, rushing forth to 'ooh' and 'aah' at a diminutive room (which she found quite plain).

"You shall stay here until we decide otherwise. Do not leave your quarters." And then he was gone, swirling red eyes and all. The gentle feel of something slipping was felt in her mind before it disappeared completely, out of her reach. She pressed a cool hand to her forehead anxiously, wondering what that slithery sensation could have been.

"Are you alright?" The Masked Man asked, hovering around her impatiently.

She looked up, managing a mild smile. "Yeah… It just felt like something was leaving my thoughts for a second… weird." The Masked Man remained silent for a while. "Okay!" He finally exclaimed. "Let's play tag!"

Amused, Kagome relented to the ridiculous request and played tag with her masked captor inside the little cubicle containing one single bed, a wooden little table… and absolutely no space for running.

* * *

AN: Sorry for the extremely long wait. I guess I can only blame this one on my own laziness. (Don't worry, I've already started the next chapter so it shouldn't take as long as this for it to be up (haha as if anything could be slower than this update). Hope you liked it even though this chapter was more of a filler than anything else… Ah well… Review!

Oh, and speaking of reviews, I'd like to thank everyone for having taken the time to review me even when it seemed like I had died, you guys made me feel guilty enough to finally move my ass and continue on with this fic after having left it for a couple o' years… Ehehe?

Before I die under an avalanche of rotten food, allow me one request: please don't kill me?


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